Tin Man
by Tomoyo Ichijouji
Summary: Uzura talks with Edel about Edel herself. Has direct spoilers for the 1st season and a few implied for the 2nd season. Written in response to a fic challenge in 2004.


This drabble was written for a challenge in December 2004 that needed to incorporate Edel in some way, and had to be 600 words or less. It's 599 words, so it's right up against the limit. As a result it may seem a little rushed. I could edit it to make it a little better, but eh. This is mostly for record's sake.

Judging from the setting and placement of characters, this probably takes place sometime after the series. There are only direct spoilers to the end of the first season, but perhaps vague situational ones for the finale.

The title pays tribute to the other story directly mentioned here, "The Wizard of Oz". It pretty much explains that story in here, too, so not much background is necessary, but it helps if you've seen it (I've only seen the movie version, not the book, unliterary as I am ^^;;)

* * *

_**Tin Man**_

Taking a break from supervising the tussle-mayor, Uzura scampered about the gears and metal contraptions, seeing gold-tinted flashes of her reflection on the metal surfaces parallel to her path.

As she darted among the cogs, she realized that a tall, thin figure with her same hair color, skin tone and clothing style appeared somewhere, flashing by so she only saw sporadic glimpses of her. She stopped, and studied the giant metal gear that lay suspended in front of the gear she stood on.

The woman, reflected in the mirror image of the golden gear, was sitting right next to Uzura on the gear beside her.

Uzura glanced at the neighboring gear directly, but mysteriously, she wasn't there. After a couple of glances back and forth from the reflection and the gear, she recognized that she seemed to only exist in the image in front of her.

Pondering this curiously, Uzura promptly sat down and dangled her short legs offhandedly over the toothed rim of the gear. "I didn't know Me-zura appeared in reflections-zura."

"Gaps between dimensions have different laws," Edel replied.

"It's the first time I've really seen you-zura." Uzura stood up and leaned over as far as she could, trying to examine as close as possible the figure in the reflection. "We look pretty similar-zura."

"Yet we are not," Edel replied. "I am merely a puppet who has no heart, while you…" She trailed off.

Uzura's head tilted curiously. "No heart?"

"A heart is made up of emotions, memories, and persona. A heart gives humans something called 'self.'"

"But you have those too, Me-zura."

Edel's eyes closed. "Puppets can only imitate emotions resulting from human influence."

Uzura turned to look at someone that wasn't there. "Are they really imitations-zura?"

Receiving only silence as an answer, Uzura looked back at the reflection and went on. "Well, even if they are imitations, how come you're imitating in the first place-zura? Then you must want to imitate them, and if you want something, that's an emotion."

She took out her drumsticks, but instead of drumming them on her little cylinder, she twiddled with them, almost unconsciously. "There's a story that I saw around here one time that sounds just like that. In the story, there's a bunch of people that are missing things that they want-zura. One of them is a tin man, and he said that he didn't have a heart, just like Me-zura. He decided to go to this all-powerful wizard to try to get one-zura."

Edel blinked impassively. "How did the story conclude?"

Uzura again reflexively tried to look at her other self directly, but with failure her head whipped back to the reflection. "Well, the wizard didn't really give him a heart-zura. He said something about him already having a heart, since he had needed one to get to him in the first place."

Uzura frowned dolefully. "Too bad Me-zura doesn't have a convenient wizard to go prove herself to-zura."

In the reflection, Edel's head tilted downwards in expressionless thought. An image of ravens dancing with swords, about to tear apart a black clad warrior. Then rapid movement, and then a nameless, piercing, fading feeling. Then, lightness and peace were all she felt. Memories of an otherworldly pas de deux drifted through her mind.

She pondered deeply. There was only one question, yet its solution immeasurable. _Why?_

The gears around them clanked away nonchalantly as something silently permeated through Edel's mind.

Then, with a soundless click of comprehension, she glanced back up and stood as Uzura watched her.

"Perhaps another tin man has been her own wizard."


End file.
